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“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says. And then he has the nerve to smile.
“You don’t want me to watch Ryan play,” I accuse.
“Musical appreciation enriches us all,” he smirks. “Why would anyone try to stand in your way?”
“That’s a good question, James. Maybe you should answer it.”
There is no answer, just that same smug look of quiet triumph on his face that begs for a good slapping. Max looks back and forth between us and then stops, pointing at this bush we pass every day, covered in purple flowers that weren’t there the week before.
“You see that?” he asks. “That’s the New England aster. It doesn’t normally bloom until September or October.” The depth of Max’s useless knowledge never ceases to amaze me.
“What’s your point, Max?” sighs James irritably. “Because I feel sure there’s a point here.”
“My point,” Max smirks, “is that things don’t bloom because they’re told it’s the correct time. They bloom because the conditions are right.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” demands Ginny. “Because the rest of us haven’t been smoking pot all morning so we can’t decipher your cryptic little comments.”
“James knows what I mean,” Max grins, walking ahead. And based on the way James is glaring at him, it appears Max is right.
We find a spot on the beach and I spread my towel between Ginny and Ryan.
“Why aren’t you wearing a bikini?” Ryan asks as I undress. I never wore one again after the day James accused me of wearing dental floss.
“Elle never wears a bikini,” says Max. “We’ve all assumed it’s because she has some kind of scar or horrible disfigurement. Maybe asymmetry from a bad boob job.”
Ryan grins. “Speaking as someone who’s experienced the whole package, I can assure you that there is no disfigurement. And those puppies,” he says, looking at my chest, “are 100% real.”
“Can we not talk about this?” I snap at both of them.
They stop but Max gives Ryan a thumbs up, laughing silently. I watch as James takes off to run on the beach without a word to any of us.
“What’s his deal?” asks Ginny. “I’ve never seen him run so much in my life.”
“Your brother has some demons to exorcise,” says Max.
“What demons?” she demands.
Max’s glance flickers over to me before he shrugs. “We all have parts of ourselves we struggle with.”
Ginny snorts. “I don’t see you struggling with much.”
“The fact that I’m a less principled man than James,” he sighs, “is hardly a mystery.”
Chapter 25
I spend the night ignoring James as best I can. I put in my drink orders without a hint of a smile or even common courtesy. The words ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ don’t cross my lips once when I’m forced to speak to him.
“Are you really going to spend the whole summer not speaking to me?” he asks as we drive home. “Over this?”
“Are you admitting you did it?”
“No.”
I groan in exasperation. “Well, I still think you did, but no, going for the whole summer without speaking to you seems a little unrealistic.”
He smiles a little. “So exactly what portion of the summer will you refuse to speak to me before forgiving me for doing something I’ve never said I did?”
“What do you care? You still avoid me unless you’ve been drinking.”
